Taking it All in and Letting it Run its Course

May 2013

Vacatioooonnnnn - whoooooo!!!! Love vacations.

It was so good to be home - got to see Jordan & Linds get married and my lil sis wrap up her final days of high school. Hung out with lots of friends and family, ate my share and then some of Pancheros, coaxed a weekly back rub out of my sisters, saw the season finale of Dancing with the Stars, forced everyone to be the passenger when it came to driving anywhere, and made at least a weekly appearance at the mall. Reallllly good.

April 2013

In village! And feeling a lot better – started taking the malaria medicine they prescribed me and the fever and headaches stopped. Matt stayed over on his way back to his village.

Last night in Kpalimé – I’ve been feeling awful, so I called my doctor – she said to get a malaria test, so I went to a clinic and a hospital – the test came back negative, which is good news, but I am still really sick, so who knows =/

Talked to Grandma tonight! She is adorable and I love her so much!

Went to Lomé, met up with Julie, talked to Paul and headed to Kpalime in this little car – there were four women in the backseat which would have been a tight fit anyway (four pairs of female hips in a backseat is something akin to a jigsaw puzzle), but two of them were a little on the round side making it that much trickier. We made it though and Kpalimé is gorgeous, so if you are ever in Togo, I’d highly recommend it.

Went to Atakpamé on my way to Kpalimé and stayed in the house – talked to Dad and Mandy – so excited for this vacation and SO excited that I’ll be home in about three weeks

There is a chicken who loves my house. I’ve caught her in my bedroom twice. Named her Henrietta.

Received a notification from PC today that female volunteers will no longer be able to request tampons or pads from the med unit. Received a package in the mail – what was in it? Tampons. Went to the bathroom that night. What did I have? My period.

Mah.

Had tortillas and jarred pizza sauce that was on the verge of being too moldy to eat – pretended it was chips and salsa – swear it tasted just as good, maybe even better.

Simplice came by my house at 6 AM this morning to go talk to the local agricultural advisor… haha had to change out of my pajamas and put the coffee on hold.

Had first official grain storage meeting – we’re planning on starting construction hopefully in July and have a training at the end of the month

March 2013

Went to Alicia’s village, about 20k away – her place is beautiful!

Cultural week at school – my club did the macarena and a skit to tell everyone that they shouldn’t cut down trees =] There were also a bunch of people who danced to Toufan, a Togolese singer. Lots of fun

Went to church with the Shanks

Carolina visited my site, made a quick stop at the cyber and then went to the pool =] 2 months till my flight leaves for the states!

Matt came over, the three of us climed the mountain n had a dance party with my host family

Sebastian came over

February 2013

I slacked off during February, so you guys are gonna get the paragraph version J

Early February I got back from Dapaong – loved it. Continued with the computer classes and environmental club. Computer classes are starting to get really busy – I now teach them 3-4 times every week, and we’re getting into Microsoft Word, etc. Definitely some tricky vocabulary involved now… “Click on the insert tab to choose which graph you would like to use; you can format it with a right click; in charts you can insert functions…” it’s definitely taking my French to the next level.

Environmental club is getting more fun – the kids are all good friends now. Our tree pepinaire is doing well – it think most of them have sprouted.

Paul, my boss, came for a visit and we talked about a bunch of projects to work on. I think soon we are going to get going on a grain storage project.

At the end of the month I had a training in Pagala. It was really good to see other volunteers again. My host mom went with me as one of my work partners – we learned about canning/jarring, animal husbandry, behavior change, funding, monitoring and evaluation, cookstoves, etc. It was really busy, but really good.

January 2013

Went up north to visit Matt Coomer

More internet lessons – got five new friends on facebook

More keyboarding lessons – got some typers here in Togo

Last week my club made a rule that anyone who is late has to pay 25 CFA, and if you are absent you have to pay 50 CFA. So today there were 5 or 6 kids who were late and as each one entered the class the first words they heard were, “En retard!!! 25!”. The first time the treasurer said it I started laughing… mistake – she gave me a very serious stare and said, “that’s the rule. when someone is late they pay.”

Cyber classes are going really well!! We are teaching internet and typing lessons – we have maybe 10 students. Soon we are going to start a class just for teachers.

Went up the mountain with Mama today to prepare a house for a funeral in March. It takes about an hour and a half to make it up the mountain to this house and you have to take all these little skinny windy paths to get there. By the time we made it, I was pretty tired. Mama got to work cooking and building a house and I sat on a bench haha

So this was a Wednesday and I have club on Wednesdays, so I had to leave early in order to make it back in time. During my time on the bench I was planning how this would go. I would have to leave 2 hours before club starts in order to make it in time. That would mean 1:00 and Mama definitely wouldn’t be ready to go back by then… that would mean going back by myself, which is exacty what happened. Haha I WISH you guys could have seen me coming down the mountain, you would have laughed so hard!! I was slipping through yam fields, jumping off rocks, grabbing reeds of grass… I completely gave up on the idea of finding any path and just went straight down. By the time I made it back to the house my hands were bleeding and I was covered in burs and grass. But I made it to club on time, so I’m gonna mark that up as a success.

made orange juice, drank it, went for a run, heard something that sounded like drums, thought a village was having a party, it was the orange juice in my stomach.

Cleaned! whew. washing sheets by hand suuuucks.

Went to post and bought a bunch of veggies!! Got 4!! packages – thank youuuuu. Had club today – we elected officers and did skits. Had a meeting at the cyber – we made a plan of action for the computer classes – they will start this next weekend. The Kara marché was burned! A lot of people lost their businesses – pray!!

Worked at the cyber

Meeting at school and cyber

There was a lizard that drowned in one of my buckets… freaked me out – I just wanted to drain my spaghetti…

soooooo much laundry! =/

Back to village

To Lomé to get debit card… also! Mandy’s in Amsterdam!!!

Went to Sebastian’s village and fete-d there… parents called, attempted to talk to them, but it was a little hard to hear over all the singing and drums haha

December 2012

NEW YEARS EVE!!!!!!

Had BURRITOS in Atakpamé & played movie charades =]

Went to Atakpamé with Matt and Riordan.

Made breakfast for YWAM missionaries and headed to Kara – hung out at the pool with a bunch of people then had dinner at the Richardson’s.

Back to the cyber for more computer lessons!

Woke up, spent some time in the Bible, family got ready for mass, but we were so late that we completely missed it, ate lunch with YWAM kids, went to village dance party, talked to lots of friends and family, made pudding because I literally had no other food, watched a movie and went to bed. Really unique, but really really good Christmas =]

Met another group of YWAM missionaries! Spent all day reading the Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis.

Farendé marché – Britt called and she doesn’t have her visa yet, so there is a possibility that she won’t be able to come!! =/

Spent all day teaching computer lessons.

Another day harvesting corn! Maija’s birthday party in Kpagouda tonight.

Stocked up on food at the marché and continued with the computer lessons.

Had my first two classes at the cyber – we set up an email account and facebook page for the cyber and taught them how to use them both.

Britt is coming in 8 days!!!!!!!!! Had a meeting at the cyber today to talk about when we’re going to start up classes – found out we’re starting tomorrow! =]

Sold tchouk for Mama at the market. At first I was really excited, but then someone told me that I gave them too much for the ‘taste’ and then someone else got upset because the tchouk wasn’t fermented enough – wanted to tell them next time they can just make it themselves, but my French isn’t quite up to that level yet =] But naw, it was good, it was fun to talk to people and hang out for the day.

Another day out in the field – this time we harvested corn – took an hour and a half to walk out to the field, worked for 7 hours, then walked the hour and a half back to the house… no wonder everyone here is so beautiful and in such good shape – sorry to burst your bubble Jillian and South Beach diet and Weight Watchers, but your ab workouts and point systems are never gonna quite measure up to the boot camp they’ve got going on over here in Togo.

Environmental club went well – it was our last one of the year – I’m going to miss it these next couple weeks!

Back to village – 12 hour trip, check.

Worked at the Togo 2000 fair – spent lots of time telling little kids about moringa and the Peace Corps. Peace Corps is a pretty big fan of moringa –it’s high in vitamins and minerals and can help with malnutrition, hypertension, and dibetes – it’s pretty magical in theory, but some people at the fair had some unique ideas of what it’s capable of. “Why should you eat moringa?” I’d ask, and there’d always that one kid who’d answer “It cures cancer!” or the brazen pre-teen who called out “You mix it with hard liquor and it makes you strong!”. Unfortunately I spent most of the day stomping on a lot of high hopes, but in the mean time I got to eat ice cream and sit in front of a fan, soooo can’t complain about that.

Celebrated Stacy’s birthday with Isaac, Lindsey, Erica, Jonas, Spenser, Sarah, Bou, and Nick – it was so good to see them again!

Skyped with the family for an hour and a half!

Got to Lomé & ate Chinese & talked to Mandy <3

November 2012

Visited a seed bank and bee-keeping site, learned about food transformation. Will cut his foot open in a nasty water balloon war.

Had an awesome talk w/ Sebastian & Matt.

Learned about agroforestry, soil fertility, and mushroom cultivation.

Learned about improved grain storage techniques, various animal husbandry practices, and environmental clubs.

Went to Pagala for training AND got three packages in the mail =] =] Super good to see other volunteers and catch up.

One month till Britt comes!! Climbed ALL the way up my mountain – it’s absolutely gorgeous <3 Ate with the family – we had rice and beans.

Got home from Kara this morning, started boiling water for supper tonight and the gas for my stove ran out… haha soooo I’ll have to make another trip to Kara tomorrow. Until then spoons of peanut butter will have to hold me over =] Talked to Lindsey!!!

Another Thanksgiving in Kara, haha, pretty sure I’ve eaten more Thanksgiving food this year in Togo than any other year of my life =]

The meals just keep getting better – Thanksgiving with Richard, Alicia & Will – we bought a 20 lb. turkey for 4 of us… needless to say, I was full when I left.

In Kara – went to visit a friend & used their wireless, skyped with the family for the first time since I’ve been in Togo & cried haha =] Miss you so much. My friend Matt, and his wife Grace invited me to their Thanksgiving dinner – had sweet potato casserole, fried chicken and green bean casserole – definitely the best meal I’ve had since I’ve been here, hands down.

Had fufu with the family – and peanut sauce. Fufu is definitley one of my favorite Togolese meals, but the peanut sauce…

BRITTANY IS GOING TO VISIT ME FOR CHRISTMAS!!!!!!!!!! I am so stinkin excited ! =] Made paper snowflakes and hung them from my ceiling. Also talked to whole family in Clarion and Mandy – Mandy, you should lose your phone more often… I like talking to you =] Also tonight, went to scripture reading/workship/prayer time at the church where the YWAM kids worked… super awesome huge answer to prayer.

One of the biggest things I’ve been learning since I’ve come here is what it means to have faith – to pray for something, not only with confidence that God is capable of doing what I ask for, but that He WILL do it. And then to hope for it until it does happen – to eagerly expect it. Some people might think that that would just be asking to be disappointed a lot, but I think that it means living a full life, seizing every opportunity that God sends my way. Definitely not easy, but so incredibly worth it.

This past week I just finished a book and it talked about when David was bringing the Ark back to Israel in 2 Samuel 6, and Michal was watching her husband rejoicing :

16 As the ark of the LORD came into the city of David, Michal the daughter of Saul looked out of the window and saw King David leaping and dancing before the LORD, and she despised him in her heart…. 20 And David returned to bless his household. But Michal the daughter of Saul came out to meet David and said, “How the king of Israel honored himself today, uncovering himself today before the eyes of his servants' female servants, as one of the vulgar fellows shamelessly uncovers himself!” 21 And David said to Michal, “It was before the LORD, who chose me above your father and above all his house, to appoint me as prince over Israel, the people of the LORD—and I will celebrate before the LORD. 22 I will make myself yet more contemptible than this, and I will be abased in your eyes.

Basically I am so joyful to be God’s daughter – what a joy and a privilidge. I am so proud of my Father, who He is, what He has done for us. So I am going to believe in Him for the very best, and I am going to dance with joy and freedom.

There are some missionaries here until Saturday from YWAM, so hung out with them this afternoon – they are AWEMSOME and I’m so blessed that they came!!!! =]

Had first club with the kids at CEG today! Went well! They made a mission statement for the club; I’m excited for what’s ahead. Made pizza for supper, yum, and talked to Maggie on the phone.

Got everything finalized for the environmntal club! We’re goning to have our first meeting this week!

Austin made cinnamon rolls for me and Richard… pretty sure this is going to turn into a weekly meeting. Second kid’s club – we played red rover, it was a hit =] even got some adults to join in.